In a Sylmar courtroom Monday, Pedram Shayesteh stood before a judge as well as a daughter still grieving from a terrible night two years ago.

Dabbing his eyes and nose with a tissue, the 18-year-old Woodland Hills man stood up, ready to face his sentence. But first, he would voice his remorse “from the deepest part of my soul” for actions that caused the death of an Encino father.

Shayesteh was 16 years old when he was involved in the high-speed crash on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana that left another motorist, Habib “Harry” Sabzerou, 68, dead.

Los Angeles County prosecutors argued that Shayesteh had been engaged in an illegal street race with a friend when he struck Sabzerou’s car on the night of the Jan. 2, 2017 crash. Ultimately, in February, Shayesteh was convicted of felony vehicular manslaughter.

But overriding prosecutors’ request for long-term juvenile camp, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Morton Rochman on Monday sentenced Shayesteh to probation up to the age of 21 as well as 500 hours of community service at a skilled nursing facility in Northridge.

The judge granted the teen release from custody Monday after he had spent 407 days at the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar.

Rochman noted that there are no appropriate programs at the camp level, such as education, or family resources that would assist Shayesteh. He said a court-ordered program would better suit him.

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Francisco Henriquez, Jr. had argued that justice would only be served by the defendant serving up to nine months at juvenile camp.

Unlike Habib Sabzerou, Henriquez said, Shayesteh “will have a chance to do things he wants to do in life. He’s not going to have a strike on his record.”

Los Angeles police said Shayesteh had reached a speed of up to 107 miles an hour before his white Mercedes struck Sabzerou’s black Toyota Camry as the man was turning left from Ventura Boulevard onto Lindley Avenue. The collision forced the Camry into a gas station and left Sabzerou critically injured. The husband and father of two grown children died the next day.

Before the sentencing on Monday at Sylmar Juvenile Courthouse, Shayesteh, wearing a light-colored sweat shirt and pants, told the judge that he would “fulfill and uphold my obligation to do everything the court allows me to do and asks me to do.”

Shayesteh said the situation has shown him the importance of helping not only his own community but as many individuals as he can.

While in custody, Shayesteh created a college mentorship program for juvenile minors that’s under review by the staff of the Juvenile Hall where he was held, according to Bryonn Bain, founding director of the UCLA Prison Education Program.

Alaleh Kamran, who is representing the defendant, argued that there is nothing the court can do to Shayesteh that “he hasn’t already done to himself.”

She said it’s the teen’s responsibility to “dedicate the rest of his life to honor that moment in time.”

She also argued that prosecutors “overpromised” the victim’s family by initially charging Shayesteh with murder, a count that was thrown out by the judge due to insufficient evidence.

But Sabzerou’s daughter, Del Sabzerou, told the court that she disagreed. She said the process — which she had described as awful to endure — has given her “a lot of closure” and made her feel that local officials care “because they didn’t let it go.”

“Knowing that (Shayesteh) did 407 days (in Juvenile Hall), knowing he went through this process and knowing the (District Attorneys) had the courage to try to make an example of this (former) minor makes me happy,” she said.

Meanwhile, Shaked Kadosh of Reseda, whom authorities allege was engaged in street racing with Shayesteh at the time of the crash, admitted one count of felony vehicular manslaughter on Feb. 20 at the same courthouse, according to a spokesman for the District Attorney’s office. Kadosh, who was 19 as of earlier this year, was placed on house arrest for six months as part of the negotiated settlement.

Brenda Gazzar is a multilingual multimedia reporter who has worked for a variety of news outlets in California and in the Middle East since 2000. She has covered a range of issues, including breaking news, immigration, law and order, race, religion and gender issues, politics, human interest stories and education. Besides the Los Angeles Daily News and its sister papers, her work has been published by Reuters, the Denver Post, Ms. Magazine, the Jerusalem Post, USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, The Cairo Times and others. Brenda speaks Spanish, Hebrew and intermediate Arabic and is the recipient of national, state and regional awards, including a National Headliners Award and one from the Associated Press News Executives' Council. She holds a dual master's degree in Communications/Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.